[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17661]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WHEN IS ENOUGH, ENOUGH?

  (Ms. SPEIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. SPEIER. When is enough enough? AIG is getting ready to pay out 
more in retention bonuses. This is on top of the $165 million they paid 
out in March to the same executives whose credit default swaps and 
other poorly designed financial products drove the world economy off a 
cliff.
  The only difference is this time around they are trying to get the 
American people to say that what they're doing is right.
  Give me a break.
  Taxpayers have already infused $170 billion into AIG. And where is 
their break? A teacher in my district gets $60,000 a year. A bench 
scientist coming up with a cure for cancer gets maybe $200,000 a year. 
An ER doc saving people's lives every single day gets maybe $350,000 a 
year.
  AIG has asked the administration's compensation czar, Kenneth 
Feinberg, to sign off on these bonuses--even while acknowledging he has 
no authority to stop them. Why? Because AIG wants cover.
  I urge Mr. Feinberg to reject AIG's request.

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